Skip to main content

Overview

Introduction​

Integrating Vivado with continuous integration (CI) software can streamline the FPGA development process, making it more efficient and less prone to errors. CI software allows developers to automatically build, test, and deploy their FPGA designs, ensuring that they are always up-to-date and working correctly. It also allows multiple developers to collaborate on the same project, and it can be used to manage the deployment of the FPGA design to multiple devices.

In this tutorial series, you will learn how to use Vivado with FPGAs and integrate it with CI software to automate the FPGA development process, making it more efficient and less error-prone.

We will be using the Arty A7-100 Development board, but the principles here can be applied to any AVR microcontroller.

You can find the source code for this example here.

What You'll Learn​

  • Setting up a CI environment for AMD (Xilinx) FPGA projects.
  • Automating build, test, and deployment processes.
  • Integrating CI tools with version control systems like Git.
  • Running tests and generating reports for Vivado.
  • Using specific features for embedded developers on BeetleboxCI.
  • Ensuring code quality and reliability in embedded systems development.

What’s in the tutorial series​

  1. Setting up and simulation: In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up and configure your continuous integration software to work with Vivado. This will include setting up a repository for your FPGA projects and configuring the build environment. You will then run logic simulations and check the correctness of your results through assertion statements
  2. Synthesis and testing hardware: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Vivado design tools to synthesize a design. You will then run a basic hardware testbench on your device and check the results through an Integrated Logic Analyzer (ILA).